This thesis introduces and examines the work of French philosopher Michel Henry with particular focus on his phenomenological-theological analyses of the self. Given its thematic emphasis, the thesis incorporates several interlocutors in addition to Henry: primarily Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger and St. Augustine but also Jean-Luc Marion, Jean-Yves Lacoste and Dominique Janicaud. Revolving around the question of the self, the thesis maintains that Henry elucidates a peculiar and ultimately problematic theory of the self—a duplicitous self bifurcated between interior and exterior fields of display. While appreciating Henry’s attempt to reconstitute the interior self in relation to God, we argue he ultimately disqualifies the utility of the exterior body in the world; to overcome this imbalance we employ key insights from St. Augustine’s “phenomenology of the self,” drawing especially on his more mature works, De Trinitate, City of God and the Confessions. The first chapter offers broad context to the thesis as a whole by specifying what constitutes phenomenology as a line of inquiry, the debate surrounding the “theological turn” introduced by Dominique Janicaud in the 1990s and a constructive proposal for a rapprochement between phenomenology and theology. Chapter two determines Henry’s place in the phenomenological tradition, bringing to light his critical departure from both Heidegger and Husserl. Heidegger’s analytic of being-inthe- world discloses how human existence is co-emergent with the exterior (i.e. ecstatic) field of the world. Husserl’s focus on the intentional life of the ego suggests that consciousness is like a “lighthouse” that illuminates objects before its gaze. From Henry’s perspective, both Heidegger and Husserl advance a self shaped entirely by the exterior world and its temporal horizon. To counter the singular focus on exteriority, Henry does not deny exteriority but attends to the possibility of a site of pure interiority, secure and complete in its transcendental self-presence and thus disengaged from the exterior horizon of the world. Chapters three and four critically elaborate Henry’s duplicitous self from a theological point of view. Interrogating Henry’s triptych on Christianity (C’est moi la vérité, 1996; Incarnation, une philosophie de la chair, 2000; and Paroles du Christ, 2002), we see that the self is structured a duplicity or two-sidedness. Chapter three’s main premise is that the interior ego is manifest internal to itself apart from exterior horizon of temporality. Prior to the temporal opening of the world, Henry articulates a self who appears in non-temporal or “acosmic” union with divine life. Joined together in perfect unity by a subjective structure called “auto-affection,” the interior self and God form a fully-realized “monism,” a parousaic presence that both eliminates the Creator-creature distinction and promotes escapism from the world. Chapter four confirms this thesis with regard to Henry’s richly textured considerations of the body. Chapters five and six proceed to show a constructive way beyond Henry’s duplicitous self. Over against Henry, the thesis elaborates an eschatological conception of the self we call the “porous self.” Ordered by the eschatological structure of “seeking,” the porous self takes as its principal interlocutor St. Augustine, however, insights from Marion, Lacoste, Husserl and Heidegger are employed. This thesis figures a self that does not split, but integrates, the interior and exterior fields of display within the absolute horizon of the parousia or eternal Sabbath to come. Chapter five discusses the temporal nature of faith nurtured by the eucharist and the chapter six highlights the importance of the body in view of the ecclesial, sacramental and resurrection bodies. An exercise in constructive philosophical theology, this thesis figures the self over against Henry’s duplicitous self, and in so doing, integrates interiority more deeply with exteriority in a manner that accounts for (1) the temporal nature of the body in the world and (2) the eschatological distance between the self and God.

An examination of the plays which Henry Fielding wrote before becoming one of England's greatest novelists has revealed that they possess strong comic merit and are worthy of serious critical attention. Before turning to the plays themselves, the critical corpus on Fielding's plays has been considered, and the nature and purpose of Fielding's dramatic burlesque has been defined.Fielding's burlesque embodies the serious comic purpose of exposing vice and folly in the theater. Specifically, Fielding objects to the restrictions imposed on playwrights by dramatic conventions as well as by the critics and theater managers; furthermore, he criticizes the rude behavior and insipid taste of contemporary playgoers.This theatrical criticism has illuminated Fielding’s comic craft, displaying the ways in which he uses the vehicle of vice and folly in the theater to expose these flaws in social, political, and professional institutions as well.

This thesis is a rhetorical analysis of a major speech by Robert Welch, founder of The John Birch Society. A verbatim copy of the speech used in this analysis is available under the title of The Blue Book Of The John Birch Society. However, this speech was originally delivered by Robert Welch in December of 1958.The analysis examines the purpose and organization of The Blue Book speech, and the use of logical, factual, and non-factual arguments. An attempt is also made to point out fallacies in arguments, weaknesses in organization, multiplicity of purposes, and unethical techniques and factual discrepancies.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the nature and role of the relation which exists between the revelation of God to man, and ethics. Within Protestant Christianity two major schools of thought are involved in active debate over the issue. We have selected Reinhold Niebuhr of the neo-orthodox wing and Carl F. H. Henry as the evangelical spokesman, in view of comparing their concepts of revelation to their ethics. / We proceed by asking whether the ethical systems of both Niebuhr and Henry are dependent, interdependent, or independent in relation to revelation. We find the answer by observing the parallel movement of differences in the form and content of revelation with the differences in the form and content of their ethics. We discover dependence. / Furthermore, we consider the ways in which the revealed content is related to ethics. Thus we measure the relevance of revelation to ethics and discover again the same relatedness and dependence.

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the main theme of Heptameron, by Marguerite de Navarre, is not love, as numerous critics maintain, but the notion of honour. This notion is the real unifying principle that indisputably confers its penetrating unity to the book. / If the kind of dialogue favoured by the Queen creates a polyphony which, at first, may seem destabilizing and hinder the coherence of the book, after reading it carefully, however, one notices that a certain number of guidelines relating to the notion of honour permeate the book. By identifying systems and ensembles, one discovers different sets of correlations--in connection with the notion of honour, that are connected by intelligible links and form homogeneous units that are completely meaningful. This reveals that, behind the obvious conservatism of the characters and members of the storyteller circle of Heptameron, the bivalence of the honour code, in the relationships between men and women, is challenged, even criticized.

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This dissertation argues that the novels of Henry James offer a conception of personhood and of human freedom better able to explain and unify private law than the conceptions currently dominant in private law theory. I begin by laying out the two conceptual frameworks that now dominate private law theory: Kantian right and the feminist ethic of care. I argue that Kantian right‟s exclusive focus on respect for freedom of choice makes it unable to explain private law doctrines founded upon concern for human well-being, including unjust enrichment, unconscionability, and liability for negligence. However, feminism‟s ethic of care, which can be understood as a response to the Kantian abstraction from considerations of well-being and need, is also incomplete, because its understanding of the person as essentially connected to others fails to respect human separateness. I then offer readings of James‟ novels—The Portrait of a Lady, What Maisie Knew, and The Ambassadors—that show how vindicating individual worth requires both respect for abstract agency‟s separateness and freedom to choose, on the one hand, and concern for the dependent individual‟s well-being and autonomous flourishing, on the other. I argue that these two ideas are complementary parts of a complete understanding of human dignity and freedom. Finally, I argue that this understanding illuminates doctrines of private law that remain mysterious on the Kantian account while avoiding feminism‟s tendency to immerse private law in public law.

This dissertation provides a narrative analysis of the political career of former Senate Majority Leader Howard H. Baker, Jr. Based principally upon findings from interviews, public papers, newspapers, and other primary sources, the study includes accounts of Mr. Baker's bids for Senate Republican Leader in 1969, 1971, and 1977, his campaign for the Presidency in 1980, and his failure to secure the nods for the position of Vice President in 1968, 1973, 1974, and 1976. Its focus, however, lies upon his legislative work and his role in the development of a statewide two-party system in his native Tennessee. It can be said without question that Baker defined the overriding issue of all Watergate investigations with his query, "What did the President know and when did he know it?" Equally evident from this treatise is Baker's role as the de facto architect of the coalition which emerged in the mid 1960s to challenge Democratic hegemony at the state level in Tennessee. With well-reasoned appeals to those groups disenchanted with those inBaker won a landslide victory in 1966 and even larger margins in 1972 and 1978. In the meantime, several younger Tennessee Republicans captured other onetime Democratic seats using much the same strategy.Much of Baker's success at the polls sprang from the perception that his outlook coincided sharply with the moderately conservative weltanschuung predominant within his constituency. Unlike many to his right, however, Baker believed his party could not be merely naysayers, but had a duty to offer alternatives to Democratic proposals for the alleviation of societal problems. Upon becoming Leader, he, following the pattern of Robert Taft, rallied his caucuses behind solutions utilizing the free-market approach. Well established by this time was his reputation as a problem-solver and a conciliator. Prior to 1977, he had played integral roles in the development of the Fair Housing Act, revenue sharing, the monumental antipollution bills of the early 1970s, the opening of the highway trust fund to mass transit programs, and legislation accelerating the reapportionment of state legislatures. Thereafter, he played equally significant, and sometimes determinative parts in the approval of the Panama Canal Treaties, the sale of jets to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the creation of the Department of Education, the Reagan economic program, the lifting of the arms embargo on Turkey, and the designation of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a federal holiday. Only Hubert Humphrey, Henry Jackson, and Russell Long among the Democrats with whom he served has as broad a scope of accomplishment. Within his own caucus, his only equal was Everett Dirksen, his father-in-law.

The main objective of this thesis is to offer an understanding of the nature and political importance of English royal councils in the reign of Henry II (1154 -- 1188), a subject that has never attracted historical attention before. While the analysis of particularly controversial meetings has been incorporated in several studies, the common features of councils have never been made a subject of historical enquiry. The present study has relied on the evidence provided in contemporary sources, such as the numerous chronicle and a large body of royal charters, treatises, and official documents which have been preserved for this period. It has also studied a number of political, legal, administrative and "seal treatises, all of which provide useful insights into the mentalities of the time and the Institutional makeup and governance of England under Henry II. The first chapter is a chronological narrative which aims to introduce the reader into the subject and to associate group of councils with the different phases in Henry's reign. Then the terminology employed in the sources to identify and describe these meetings is analysed so to understand how were these assemblies perceived in the political community. The third chapter deals with the circumstantial aspects of councils by offering a study of the places and buildings where assemblies take place, as well as the calendar and the frequency they followed. The following two chapters discuss the evidence for and the process of conciliar consultation, and the matters discussed at royal councils In this period. The following chapter studies the attendance and the social aspects of these meetings. The last chapter Is an essay which evaluates the place occupied by these councils within the early history of parliament. The central conclusion which brings together all these chapters is that the unprecedented frequency with which Henry II summoned great assemblies meant that most important decisions made during his reign are connected with conciliar activity and, therefore, assented by the nobles of the realm, and that gathering councils consequently became a very useful Instrument of royal governance and a most public occasion for baronial politics in this period.

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-98).