The emperor Justinian's religious policy has sometimes been characterized as haphazard or incoherent. This dissertation examines religious policy in the Roman Empire from the accession of the emperor Justin to the inception of the Three Chapters controversy in the mid 540's AD. It considers the resolution of the Acacian Schism, Justinian's apparent ambivalence with regard to the Theopaschite formula, the attempt to court the anti-Chalcedonians in Constantinople in the period leading up to the Council of 536, and the relationship between the genesis of the Three Chapters and Second Origenist controversies. Even during these seemingly disparate episodes, this dissertation argues that it is possible to account for the apparent incoherence of this period. To do so, we create an account which includes and appreciates the embeddedness of imperial policy within a social context with two key features. First, we must bear in mind the shifting interests and information available to the individual agents through and over whom the emperor hoped to project influence. Second, we must identify the shifting and hardening symbolic and social boundaries established through the interactions of these same, competing agents. These form the basis for in- and out-group categorization. The individual interests of individual people—whether Justinian, Vitalian, Dioscorus, Leontius, Eusebius, Theodore Askidas, or Pelagius—within complex networks must always be accounted for to give a complete picture. When this social context is accounted for, Justinian's approach appears as that of a rational actor, having incomplete information, with consistent policy goals, working within inconsistent constraints to achieve those goals.

Disciple du maître bulgare Beinsa Douno (Peter Deunov) (1864-1944), Michaël Ivanoff (1900-1986) est connu à partir de 1960 sous le nom d’Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov. Entre 1938 et 1985, il a donné en France un enseignement spirituel sur la Lumière, dans la lignée de l’ésotérisme chrétien de la tradition johannite, du transcendantalisme, de la kabbale, du zoroastrisme, de l’hindouisme et du bouddhisme. En 1960, au retour d’un voyage d’un an en Inde, il a élaboré le concept de laser spirituel en transposant par analogie la découverte récente du physicien américain Theodore Maiman en une pratique de méditation individuelle et collective sur la Lumière spirituelle qui aurait pour objectif d’éveiller les consciences des êtres humains dans le monde entier. Le présent mémoire de maîtrise étudie l’enseignement sur la Lumière spirituelle, appelée Vidélina en bulgare, du maître Aïvanhov de 1938 à 1980 dans l’héritage multireligieux dont il est issu, ainsi que la pratique du laser spirituel qu’il a créée à partir de 1962, à travers la recension de ses conférences et l’observation participante de cette pratique de 1980 à 1995, puis de 2011 à 2020 dans trois centres du nouveau mouvement religieux de la Fraternité Blanche Universelle de ce maître, dans le but de dégager les conditions propices à la pérennité de cette pratique spirituelle collective. / Disciple of Bulgarian Master Beinsa Douno (Peter Deunov) (1864-1944), Michaël Ivanoff (1900-1986) has been known under the name of Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov since 1960. Between 1938 and 1985, he taught a spiritual teaching on Light in France. This teaching was inspired by the Christian esoterism of the Johannist tradition, by Transcendentalism, Kabbalah, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism and Buddhism. When Mikhaël Ivanoff returned from India in 1960 after a one-year trip, he developed the concept of the spiritual laser, transferring by analogy the physician Theodore Maiman’s recent discovery into a practice of individual and collective meditation on the spiritual Light, which would have the aim of awakening the consciousness of human beings all around the world. The present M. A. thesis studies the teachings on the spiritual Light, called Vidélina in Bulgarian, which were given by master Aïvanhov in the period 1938 to 1980, in the multireligious heritage where they come from. It also presents the practice of the spiritual laser that he created in 1962, through the review of his lectures and the participating observation of this practice from 1980 to 1995, then from 2011 to 2020 at three centers of the Universal White Brotherhood of this master. Finally this thesis draws the adequate conditions to ensure the continuity of this collective spiritual practice.

La période pré moderne en Inde voit se développer la bhakti comme nouvelle religiosité distincte et dominer de façon quasi-totale la scène religieuse en Inde. Bien que nous n’avons pas atteint une masse critique des études qui établissent une incidence de la mystique musulmane sur la poésie dévotionnelle de Kabīr, ce papier de recherche aura pour objectif de démontrer l’existence d’un lien entre la bhakti et le soufisme indo-persan implanté depuis le sultanat de Delhi jusqu’à la fin de la période moghole en se concentrant sur une question : Dans quelle mesure les pratiques ascétiques du poète Kabīr se sont développées sous l'influence de l’idéologie et la mystique soufie? Il examine comment une figure de bhakti comme Kabīr a embrassé la conception soufie de la spiritualité dans un rapport d’emprunt et d’association intime sans modifier la généalogie hindoue de cette sensibilité dévotionnelle. Les mouvements bhakti et soufi du sous-continent n'ont pas seulement montré la quête d'un individu ou d'un groupe d'individus pour atteindre la connaissance, la grâce, ou l'unicité avec l'Être suprême, ils ont insufflé à la masse des dévots hindous et musulmans une voie unique afin de rejoindre la Réalité ultime en transcendant le phénomène des identités religieuses peu ou pas définies à cette époque d’hybridité religieuse et qui furent amplement forgées par l’idée du salut par la voie mystique indépendamment du concept de la religion tel que comprise par l’érudition moderne. / The pre-modern period in India sees the development of bhakti as a new and distinct religiosity and almost completely dominates the religious scene in India. Although we have not reached a critical mass of studies that establish an impact of Muslim mysticism on Kabīr's devotional poetry, this research paper will aim to demonstrate the existence of a link between bhakti and Indo-Persian Sufism implanted from the Delhi Sultanate to the end of the Mughal period by focusing on one question: To what extent did the ascetic practices of the poet Kabīr develop under the influence of Sufi ideology and mysticism? It examines how a bhakti figure like Kabīr embraced the Sufi conception of spirituality in a relationship of borrowing and intimate association without altering the Hindu genealogy of this devotional sensibility. The bhakti and Sufi movements of the subcontinent did not merely demonstrate the quest of an individual or group of individuals to attain knowledge, grace, or oneness with the Supreme Being, they instilled in the mass of Hindu and Muslim devotees a unique path to reach the Ultimate Reality by transcending the phenomenon of religious identities that were little or not defined in that era of religious hybridity and that were amply forged by the idea of salvation through the mystical path independently of the concept of religion as understood by modern scholarship.

L’essor du monachisme au courant des IVe et Ve siècles a transformé le paysage religieux dans le bassin méditerranéen. Ce mouvement d’ascètes célibataires et l’impact de son institutionnalisation au sein de la Grande Église ont contribué à la formation d’une nouvelle identité religieuse et à la transformation des systèmes hérités des penseurs classiques. Ce projet, en partant des sources monastiques et classiques, mettra en lumière les relations entre les premiers moines chrétiens et les différentes figures de l’altérité – religieuse, intellectuelle et culturelle – dans la province égyptienne pendant la période byzantine. En se penchant sur différentes entités présentes sur le territoire égyptien, on sera en mesure de mieux comprendre de quelle façon l’identité monastique s’est formée dans sa relation avec l’altérité et comment les auteurs monastiques ont représenté ces groupes identitaires. Ainsi, au terme de cette présentation, le lectorat sera mieux outillé pour saisir les relations qu’entretiennent les premiers moines chrétiens et les divers visages de l’altérité dans le contexte monastique égyptien. / During the 4th and the 5th centuries, the emergence of monasticism transformed the religious landscape around the Mediterranean. This ascetic movement and the impact of its institutionalization within the Great Church contribute to the formation of a new religious identity and to the transformation of systems inherited from classical thinkers. Starting from the monastic sources, this project will shed light on the relations between the first Christian monks and the various figures of otherness – religious, intellectual, and ethnical – in the Egyptian provinces during Late Antiquity. By looking at different entities present in Egyptian territory, we will be able to understand how monastic identity was formed in its relationship with the otherness and how the monastic authors represent these identity groups. Thus, at the end of this presentation, the readers will be better equipped to understand the relationships between the first Christian monks and the various face of otherness in the Egyptian monastic context.

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Boston personalism has generally been recognized as a philosophic system based upon a metaphysical idealism. What is less known, however, is that the founder of this school of thought and some of the major contributors to the early development of this tradition were committed members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The purpose of this study is to examine the contributions made by the early Boston personalists to the cause of theological liberalism in the Methodist Church. It will be shown that personalist philosophers and theologians at Boston University ushered in and consolidated the liberal era in Methodist theology. Further, it will be argued that the religious demands of the philosophy of personalism eventually led some members of the tradition from theological liberalism to modernism and the beginnings of a religious pluralism. In other words, the thesis of this study is that the early Boston personalists were theological innovators in the Methodist Church, leading the denomination from its nineteenth-century evangelical pietism to the modernism and pluralism that was part of mid-twentieth century American Protestantism. The focus of this study will therefore be on the first two generations of personalists at Boston University: the founder of the personalist tradition, Borden Parker Bowne, and two of his most prominent students, Albert Cornelius Knudson and Edgar Sheffield Brightman. One chapter is devoted to each of figure, focused upon the impact of their personalist philosophy and methodology on their theology and philosophy of religion, and their influence on American Methodist theology. The period this study, which commences from the time of Bowne's appointment to the Department of Philosophy at Boston University in 1876 to the death of both Knudson and Brightman in 1953, reveals how Methodism grappled with the theological implications raised by the complexities of modernity and the emerging sciences. Attention will be focused on how the philosophical method of the personalists dictated their movement from pietism toward liberalism and onto modernism and pluralism. As such, this study demonstrates the integral role played by the Boston personalist tradition in theological development during the liberal era of American Methodism.

This thesis sets out to demonstrate the role of Western missionaries and Korean Christians, especially Protestants, on Korean nationalism. The first significant introduction of Protestantism into Korea came in 1884. Within just over thirty years, the Protestant Church in Korea expanded and many of the nationalist leaders took active roles in the Korean nationalist movement against Japanese imperialism. This thesis consults both Western and Korean primary sources including period newspapers. Some of the Korean primary sources were translated from Korean into English and others were originally written in English by Koreans. Also consulted are many valuable secondary sources which help further shed light on the subject at hand and give credence to the thesis. Chapters 2-4 show the direct contributions of Western missionaries to Korean nationalism and Chapters 5-7 show the indirect contributions of Western missionaries by the direct involvement of Korean Christians in their fight for independence against the old Korean order and Japan.

Mormon contributions to California history are generally well known. Most school children have heard of the march of the Mormon Battalion. The name of Samuel Brannan is known to almost any student interested in this area. The more inquisitive scholar is familiar with the voyage of the BROOKLYN and subsequent relations of the Mormons to the history of San Francisco. The mention of New Hope, however, brings puzzled looks to the faces of most people, including Mormons today living within twenty miles of the area. The Mormon movement to California was part of a general exodus by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the East and Mid-west. Persecuted for many reasons, the Mormons had been forced to leave their homes in Illinois for some place "beyond the Rocky Mountains". At the same time, those members of' the Church in the eastern states were directed to proceed by ship to a spot on the Pacific Coast. It is the latter group about whom Part I is written. Much of the history of the Mormons in California, and of New Hope in particular, is sketchy, misleading and at times in actual error. Although it must be admitted that almost all the material contained in Part I had been used before by other writers, this study, as far as it is known, offers a contribution in that every reference available on Mormons in central California, in New Hope in particular, is gathered together within one volume.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to write a complete history of Saint Anne's Church in Columbia, California. Since Saint Anne's Church was the second Catholic Church in Columbia, the writer has felt it necessary to also include information regarding the first church.

This thesis is a rhetorical analysis of utopian discourse about marriage in mid-nineteenth-century America. Although utopian communities are usually approached within the fields of history and sociology, a rhetorical analysis adds to the discussion by uncovering the discursive complexity of marriage beliefs within a rapidly changing culture. Discursive features of the Shaker, Oneida Community and Latter-day Saint texts are outlined and compared according to the following format:Chapter One examines the textures of conflict within the dominant culture's views of marriage and gender roles in nineteenth-century America, with a brief overview of reform efforts of the day. This chapter provides a wide context of marriage discourse in this era, which situates emergent utopian discourse of alternative marriage constructs.Chapter Two narrows the focus to utopian discourse, analyzing how utopian rhetoric responded to concerns of the dominant culture (outlined in Chapter One) and shaped their cultural identities. This chapter outlines several general features of utopian discourse about marriage and gender roles, with detailed analyses of the rhetoric of Shakers and the Oneida Community regarding thier alternatives to traditional marriage constructs.Chapter Three builds on the context of the first two chapters and further narrows the scope of analysis to Mormon Polygamy dsicourse. Public and private accounts are considered in a comparison of official church rhetoric with women's discourse about the principle. The last two chapters also show utopian departures from and similarities to mainstream discourse about marriage and gender roles.Although the three groups examined responded to mainstream concerns with some discursive similarities, rhetorical analysis shows that differences also exist, such as their rhetoric of gender identity and church authority. The Latter-day Saints stand out against the wider context of utopian discourse for their patriarchal model, their tenets of both continuous and personal revelation, and their enduring success as a religion.