In mid-later Heidegger’s thought, polemos, an idea he borrows from Heraclitus’ Fragment 53, prevails in his works as that which creates the possibility of a fundamentally metaphysical decision of to-be-or-not-to-be. This decision clearly corresponds to the primal conflict between the “world” and the “earth” (the concealment and the unconcealment of Being) in a “rift-design” that he depicts in “The Origin of the Work of Art.” Based on a textual analysis of “The Origin” and related writings, which follows a phenomenological examination of the guiding questions in Heidegger’s progression from the study of Dasein to the study of being as such, I provide an exegesis that clarifies how, in Heidegger’s conception of art, polemos preserved by thinghood is entangled with other elements in his entire metaphysical inquiry. I show that polemos is a re-enchanting path in the light of which Heidegger ontologically uncovers the predetermined ethical connection between the human and the sacred, having as its medium the thing and as its end freedom, with the potential of bringing salvific power to a destitute age characterized by positivistic machination. Moreover, by interpreting Heidegger’s concept of beauty as phainesthai engaged in and with aletheia conditioned by polemos, I illustrate Heidegger’s reconfiguration of the history of Western metaphysics in order to illuminate its repetitive moments through which he overcomes it.

Leisure is most basically defined as the time free from work. The ancient conception and forms of leisure were quite different from the modern ones, which came into discussion during the industrial era. The Roman society was highly stratified and comprised of diverse social classes for which leisure acquired different forms and meanings. Every stratum of the Roman society enjoyed the possibilities and pleasures of leisure proportional to its hierarchy in the social system, so that leisure can be investigated in both public and private contexts in the Roman world. This study aims to investigate leisure, which was one of the main driving social forces in the Roman society, in spatial terms with reference to Roman domestic architecture. The study focuses on central Italy and particularly on Ephesus, the latter of which is a good example to discuss how the Roman conception of leisure was spatially materialized in a provincial private setting since a group of well studied, documented, and published houses constitute an appropriate comparative sample and context in Ephesus. The spatial organization and characteristics of the spaces housing leisurely activities are discussed on the basis of an axes-scheme that regulated and even dictated the visual and bodily interaction of the participants with certain spaces and elements during leisure activities either in a static state (sitting, reclining), or a kinetic one (walking, perambulating). The visual axes are those perceived in either of these states, along which the eye is directed towards a visual focal point, whereas the dynamic axes are those along which people move during a kinetic leisurely activity. The location, architecture, and use of leisure-oriented spaces in the Roman period houses in Ephesus, such as triclinium, exedra, oecus, museion, and peristyle courtyard are examined with reference to the proposed axes-scheme to present and compare the operation of leisure in the Roman provincial and private setting.

A multi-layered analysis on the morphological development of Ephesus in relation to the Temple of Artemis and an investigative wandering through the streets of this city in the era of Roman Empire highlights this thesis characterized by a consistent search for the significance of the notion of urban armature. From the standpoint of those who lived at that time, special attention is directed toward the colonnaded avenues as well as to their formal and social impacts within the city fabric. The thesis re-reads Ephesus within two main parts / first the urban form in relation to the topographical provision and sacred landscape provided by the site itself / and then from the ground level through a walking trip of the city as it appeared in the second century A.D. Crucial to this visual experience is the semantic quality of the environment at a collective level since the meaning of the experience would be useless without considering the meaning of signs and symbols within the environment. Thus, bounding ancient society and urban space at the phenomenological level, the small trip starts at the harbor and concludes at the Temple of Artemis, the irrefutable symbol of Ephesus and the most revered shrine in Asia Minor.

This dissertation is an atrcempt to reconstruct and to recapture a period in the history of this famous city, a center so important in New Testament times and in the first two centuries or the Christian Church, but a metropolis which centuries ago became buried in the silt of a river. The site and a primitive kind of settlement began in pre-historic times. We will briefly trace the story of its ancestory; its youth; its changes; traditions; then its glory between the years 133 B.C. to A.D. 262; its contribution to culture; its spirit; its contact with Christianity; its period as a Christian center; the invasion of the Goths; the inroad of Islam; its disappearance; and its partial excavation in the nineteenth century. It is the period of its glory, 133 B.C. to A.D. 262, that is the theme of this dissertation. This was the period when the religion of Artemis was at its height and her temple at Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. This period includes the era when Christianity appeared in Ephesus and gained a foothold. Here at Ephesus the Christian writing was formed into a body of literature and published, and the Christian tradition became a pattern of Apostolic tradition. It was in these two Christian centuries that the episc~pal form of church government and organization made its appearance.

A pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar o texto da Carta à Comunidade de Éfeso (Ap 2,1-7), suas características literárias gerais, a estrutura, o gênero literário, a finalidade, o contexto da comunidade na sua vivência cristã, os desafios e as respostas que esta encontrou durante a perseguição do Império Romano e na adversidade do pluralismo religioso do período pós- apostólico (96-130 d.C.), construindo alguns caminhos para que as comunidades cristãs do nosso tempo também possam responder aos seus próprios desafios. Por meio de uma abordagem de natureza bibliográfica, realizou-se uma revisão de estudos a partir do eixo texto-contexto, utilizando-se o procedimento de análise de conteúdo em dois níveis: análise crítica ou contextual e análise textual. O primeiro capítulo apresenta, na história, o contexto de onde surgiu o texto: o tempo, a realidade sociopolítica, econômica e religiosa da Ásia Menor e da cidade de Éfeso no século I d.C., a perseguição e a pluralidade religiosa em que viveram os cristãos da comunidade dos efésios, no período pós-apostólico. Também são analisados, nesse capítulo, os reflexos do momento histórico de perseguição e pluralismo religioso na prática e vivência dos cristãos da comunidade de Éfeso, ajudando a elucidar os caminhos encontrados pelos cristãos dessa comunidade a responder os desafios trazidos pela perseguição do Império Romano e pela pluralidade religiosa da Ásia Menor. No segundo capítulo são abordadas as características literárias gerais, a origem e a formação do movimento apocalíptico, o tempo, o lugar, os destinatários, a estrutura, o gênero literário e a finalidade do texto de Ap 2,1-7. O terceiro capítulo, por fim, apresenta a análise do caminho percorrido pelas Comunidades Eclesiais de Base, no Brasil e na Diocese de Rondonópolis MT, a reflexão e a construção de algumas respostas, à luz de Ap 2,1-7, de como as comunidades do nosso tempo podem responder aos seus desafios. Olhar para as comunidades da terceira geração cristã consistiu em exercício analítico, inspirando alternativas para a vida em comunidade que precisam ser construídas diante dos desafios que atingem a vida cristã de nossa época. O texto de Ap 2,1-7 serve, assim, como parâmetro e é revelador de nossa identidade cristã, que deve permanecer a mesma em tempo de adversidades e nos impulsionar para um testemunho e uma fidelidade mais entusiasmada no seguimento de Jesus. / The objective of the research was to analyze the text in the Letter to the Christian Community of Ephesus. (Ap 2,1-7), the general literary characteristics, the structure, the literary genre, the purpose, the context of the community in its Christian way of life, the challenges and responses during persecution in the Roman Empire and in the adversity of religious pluralism in the post-apostolic time (96-130 AD), thus building some ways to help the present Christian communities to face their own challenges. By means of a bibliographical approach, a study review was conducted, based on the axis text-context, with the adoption of content analysis on two levels: critical or contextual analysis and text analysis. The first chapter presents the historical context in which the text was produced: time and sociopolitical, economic and religious reality in Asia Minor and in the city of Ephesus in the 1st century AD, the persecution and religious plurality of the Christians in the Ephesians community, during the post-apostolic period. The chapter also brings the reflections of the historical moment of persecution and religious plurality in the practice and life of the Christians in the Ephesians community, in order to help elucidate the steps they took to respond to the challenges caused by the persecution in the Roman Empire and the religious plurality in Asia Minor. The second chapter is about the general literary characteristics, the origin and the formation of the apocalyptic movement, the time, the place, the addressees, the structure, the literary genre and the purpose of the text in Ap 2,1-7. The third chapter presents the analysis of the path taken by the Base Ecclesial Communities in Brazil and in the Diocese of Rondonopolis MT, the reflection and the construction of some responses, in light of Ap 2,1-7, of how communities may respond to the present challenges. Looking at the third generation of Christian communities has been an analytical exercise, inspiring alternatives for community life that need to be built in face of the challenges posed to Christians in our time. The text in Ap 2,1-7 may be taken as a parameter, for it reveals our Christian identity, an identity that should not be subject to change in adverse times and that should lead us to a more enthusiastic testimony and fidelity in following Jesus.

The habit of honouring outstanding individuals with statues was common throughout the Roman Empire. Yet after the end of the Severan reign at the beginning of the third century AD, a decrease in honorific statues is generally assumed to have taken place. This thesis aims to evaluate this hypothesis, focusing specifically on the years AD 222-285. The thesis is assessing the contemporaneous imperial remains for the Roman Empire as a whole and the evidence from four exemplary cities that are particularly conspicuous in their statuary production and display, both before and after the time frame under investigation (Leptis Magna, Athens, Ephesus, Aphrodisias). The purpose is to explore the standards, conventions, and limitations of statuary practice in Roman society in a synthetic and comparative analysis and thereby to evaluate its political and social role during a state of internal and external instability, labelled 'the third century crisis'. By providing concrete figures, the practice of the third century can be juxtaposed with both the antecedent and subsequent centuries and this will facilitate a more coherent insight into the overall development and changes in Roman honorific statuary practice. The results suggest that the assumed decline in the number of statuary installations might have to be re-evaluated. It has become apparent that in order to obtain comparable numbers, the inclusion of imperial family members in any statistical evaluation is indispensable, a factor which has previously been disregarded. A gradual decrease cannot be supported and neither can a decrease in the appreciation of honours.

This master's thesis is dedicated to the theological disputation upon the using of the title Theotokos for Virgin Mary that had been finally resolved at the Third Ecumenical Council in Ephesus in 431 AD. The first part deals with the crucial moments of deepening theological knowledge in the Church history in order to show a development of the disputation mainly in the 3rd and 4th century. Although Christology wasn't the main theme of the teachings of the Church in that early period some of the theologians especially Irenaeus, Origen, Paul of Samosata and Apollinaris of Laodicea also raised some issues in the field of Christology. The end of the first part offers an inside into the theological mindset of both sides of the disputation - Diodorus of Tarsus and Theodor of Mopsuestia on the one side and the Orthodox fathers Athanasius, the Cappadocian Fathers, Didymus the Blind and John Chrysostome on the other side. The second part presents the written sources of the disputation and offers an insight to its beginning and development. The third and main part focuses on the correspondence between Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius mainly on their Second Epistles containing the major topics of the disputation. It discusses a content of these two epistles and also analyses and compares theological arguments of both...

In the preservation discourse, interventions are generally viewed as technical issues. Considering that interventions cause variety of changes in the characteristics of archaeological edifices starting from the excavation, these changes constructs and shapes the archaeological edifices in terms of its appearance and meaning. In that respect, interventions act as tools for making changes in archaeological edifices by causing transformation of existing characteristics, loss of some others and adding new ones. Based on this, the study aims to evaluate interventions by putting change at the center in order to understand how interventions affect archaeological edifice in constructing its appearance and meaning. The study is based on evaluation of intervention through a &amp / #8216 / new formation process&amp / #8217 / , which is based on two phases. The first phase deals with evaluation of changes in values through the &amp / #8216 / value formation process&amp / #8217 / . The second phase is related with the assessment of changes in the characteristics of archaeological edifice as a whole, in terms of its physical, functional and semantic characteristics. This approach enables the examination of the process of change starting from prior to excavation and the assessment of interventions through the principles of change (reliability, consistency, legibility) and the &amp / #8216 / value formation process&amp / #8217 / . The evaluation method is sampled on certain intervened archaeological edifices on the Curetes Street in Ephesus. The study concludes that the interventions are significant tools for making changes in archaeological edifices throughout its new lifecycle. The &amp / #8216 / value formation process&amp / #8217 / and the &amp / #8216 / new formation process&amp / #8217 / approach can make it possible to predict changes in archaeological edifices, prevent value conflicts caused by interventions and improve the quality of change shaped by interventions. Approaching the intervention process as a change management problem necessitates to develop appropriate change strategies and to define this process as a &amp / #8216 / new formation process&amp / #8217 / .